O.C.’s Aquabats go from stage to screen

March 2, 2012

Updated Aug. 21, 2013 1:17 p.m.

1 of 31

"The Aquabats! Super Show!" features Orange County band the Aquabats. It's a kids show on the Hub network, premiering on March 3, 2012. Lead singer MC Bat Commander, center, in real life is Christian Jacobs, one of the co-creators of "Yo Gabba Gabba!" a kids show on Nickelodeon. COURTESY OF THE HUB

1 of 31

Director Matt Chapman works on a scene with Aquabat MC Bat Commander from the Haunted Battle Tram episode during filming in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabats Crash McLarson and MC Bat Commander, from left, have a laugh while talking about the band and "The Aquabats! Super Show!" during a break in filming in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabat MC Bat Commander shivers as Bill Swano covers him in slime for the Haunted Battle Tram episode. They were filming in a studio in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

The Aquabats look up at something in the sky -- a very large monster, perhaps? COURTESY OF THE HUB

1 of 31

The Aquabats rehearse a scene during filming of the Haunted BattleTram episode for The Aquabats! Super Show! in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabats Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk, Jimmy the Robot, Ricky Fitness, Crash McLarson and MC Bat Commander, from left, talk about the band and "The Aquabats! Super Show!" during a break in filming in Santa Ana. Out of costume they are, left to right, Ian Fowles, James Briggs, Richard Falomir, Chad Larson and Christian Jacobs. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabat Jimmy the Robot, aka James Briggs, gets an adjustment on his costume during filming of the Haunted Battle Tram episode in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabat Crash McLarson has a laugh while talking about the band and "The Aquabats! Super Show!" during a break in filming in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk hits a power chord in the foreground. Aquabats. COURTESY OF THE HUB

1 of 31

A photo of the Aquabats sits in the laboratory set for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

The Aquabats huddle during a break in filming for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabats producer Nate Rogers talks about the Tree Monster during a break in filming in Santa Ana. The Tree Monster is in the Tentacle Beast episode of "The Aquabats! Super Show!" PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Christian Jacobs talks about the band and "The Aquabats! Super Show!" during a break in filming in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Aquabats Crash McLarson and Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk, aka Ian Fowles, from left, review the script during a break in filming for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabats Crash McLarson Ricky Fitness and Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk, from left, in costume, talk with director Matt Chapman during filming for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" in Santa Ana in December. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Christian Jacobs, aka Aquabat MC Bat Commander, talks about the band and The Aquabats! Super Show! during a break in filming in Santa Ana. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of 31

Aquabats Ricky Fitness, Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk and Crash McLarson, from left, in costume, rehearse a scene during filming for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" in Santa Ana in December. PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

"The Aquabats! Super Show!" features Orange County band the Aquabats. It's a kids show on the Hub network, premiering on March 3, 2012. Lead singer MC Bat Commander, center, in real life is Christian Jacobs, one of the co-creators of "Yo Gabba Gabba!" a kids show on Nickelodeon.COURTESY OF THE HUB

The MC Bat Commander is in trouble. The BattleTram is haunted by a ghost that has captured him, leaving his fellow Aquabats – Crash McLarson, Ricky Fitness, Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk and Jimmy the Robot – quaking in fear as they struggle to save their fearless leader.

They throw a rope with a shoe on the end of it into the void where the Bat Commander is trapped and pull ... pull ... until pop! Out comes the commander, covered in slimy orange "ectoplasm."

Cut!

Christian Jacobs, who as MC Bat Commander is the Aquabats' lead singer, grabs a towel to wipe off all the slime in which he's been drenched. Apparently all that liquid ectoplasm and the frigid Santa Ana soundstage where the Aquabats' new TV series is shot have left Jacobs bone-chillingly cold. But what's a little inconvenience when a dream that's gone unfulfilled for almost 15 years is finally coming true?

"The Aquabats! Super Show!" premieres on the Hub network on Saturday, bringing to the channel a show for kids – and plenty of grownups, we suspect – that Jacobs describes as "kind of funky. It's technically a comedy-action-musical – with fake commercials!"

And you'd expect nothing less from the Aquabats, Orange County's quirkiest punk-pop heroes, would you?

* * *

The Aquabats formed in the '90s, arriving complete with superhero costumes, a mythology about their creation and superpowers, and an infectiously fun and goofy outlook on rock 'n' roll and life.

"The one thing about the Aquabats, we've always just tried to do ridiculous stuff, just to see if we can get away with it on stage," says Chad Larson, who as Crash McLarson plays bass in the band. "So far things have been kind of an easy transition to the great acting career I have now."

You should know he's not taking himself seriously there when he talks about his incipient acting fame. Not entirely, at least. For while the Aquabats live for fun, they also work hard at success, too.

The idea for a kids' show based on the band dates back to the end of the '90s, and for years Jacobs and the others tried to figure out how to get it made.

"In pitching the Aquabats show we realized no one's going to get it," Jacobs says. "So we knew that in order to make the show we had to make a pilot."

That pilot circulated around Hollywood as pilots do, and while some people got it, others were utterly baffled, and the project ultimately stalled.

Jacobs eventually co-created the Nickelodeon kids show "Yo Gabba Gabba!" with Scott Schulz, and as that very Aquabats-influenced show for preschoolers took off to claim the crown of the coolest kids show on TV, interest grew in reviving the original idea for an Aquabats series.

Producer Ted Biaselli had tried to acquire "Yo Gabba Gabba!" for a different network, but his bosses passed. When the pilot for "The Aquabats! Super Show!" reached him he had moved to the Hub network, where Donna Ebbs, senior vice president of programming loved the show.

"It was in the zeitgeist and we are in the place of 'Why not?'" Ebbs says of the speed with which a decision was made to acquire "The Aquabats! Super Show!" "This was not something that was debated. This did not require the conference room."

Given the green light, the Aquabats got down to work a year or so ago, deciding that since nearly the entire band lives in Orange County to shoot the show here too.

"With 'Yo Gabba Gabba!' we decided to meet on neutral ground, the line between L.A. and Orange County," Jacobs says of the decision to tape that series at a soundstage in Downey. "And with this show we thought, 'Why not (shoot in Orange County)?'"

* * *

In an office at their studio, located in an unremarkable office park on the west side of Santa Ana, the Aquabats show a few clips from episodes in the initial 13-show season.

"Someone is destroying all the fast food restaurants around town," Jacobs says, setting up the clip. "And the as the Aquabats are finishing up a birthday party they hear, 'Burrito Brothers' Burger Hut' has been burned down!'"

A Man Ant card is found at the scene and the Aquabats decide to investigate.

"Man Ant is actually a man with an ant's head and a man's body," Jacobs says. "He's been stalking Crash McLarson because Crash has the ability, when he gets emotional, he grows large. He grows ridiculously large and that's something Man Ant is trying to track him down for.

"His goal is to turn an army of regular ants into large ants, as in 'Them,' the '50s movie."

But the Aquabats are really, really hungry.

"So our dilemma is: 'Do we eat now or save the world?'" Jacobs says.

The scene that unfolds on screen is ridiculous and absurd, and very, very funny. The band battles Man Ant in a park, Crash gets huge and hits ants so hard they explode. The Bat Commander battles his own urges, to eat or to go to the help of his men. And it all ends with a musical video for a song called "Burger Rain," in which the band finish off the fight as burgers rain down on them from the sky.

* * *

As they suit crowded into their office together, it's easy to see the closeness of the bonds between the Aquabats, bonds forged from 15 years or so of playing no-frills shows in mostly smaller venues.

"We're homies – most of us live in Orange County," Larson says.

"We hang out on the golf course, we surf," adds Richard Falomir, who plays Ricky Fitness, the band's drummer.

"We're all really good friends outside of the band as well," Jacobs says. "The less we play shows together the more we hang out together."

The other two Aquabats are Jimmy the Robot, the keyboard player known in real life as James Briggs, and Eagle "Bones" Falconhawk, who is guitar player Ian Fowles. All of the band members say one of the reasons they love making "The Aquabats! Super Show!" is because it touches on so many pop culture reference points from their own childhoods.

They talk about liking kids shows from the well known – "Batman," "Fraggle Rock" and "Speed Racer" – to the more obscure – "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot," a Japanese show, is one Jacobs lists as an influence for him.

Each episode will feature live-action adventures – they'll typically battle a different monster in each episode – as well as animated segments and several songs, more often than not new ones written for the show.

Guest stars pop up too. The first season includes comedians and actors such as Rip Taylor, Jon Heder and Paul Scheer.

"We're all having fun because we're all getting back to being 12 years old again," Jacobs says. "And it's really cool that 14 years (after first pitching an Aquabats show) we're finally doing the show we always wanted to do."

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.